e chuckled as we
pictured to ourselves the effect which the news of so magnificent a
_coup_ would create upon the minds of the rest of the Slave Squadron.
The _Psyche_, from her phenomenal lack of speed, and general
unsuitability for the service upon which she was employed, had, with her
crew, become the butt and laughing-stock of every stupid and scurrilous
jester on the coast, and many a time had we been made to writhe under
the lash of some more than ordinarily envenomed gibe; but now the laugh
was to be on our side; we were going to demonstrate to those shallow,
jeering wits the superiority of brains over a clean pair of heels.

Of course we were all in a perfect fever of impatience to get to sea and
make the best of our way to the scene of action, lest haply we should
arrive too late and find the birds flown; but the skipper retained his
coolness and would permit nothing to be done that could by any
possibility suggest to the slavers the idea that the faintest hint of
their audacious scheme had been allowed to get abroad. He insisted that
we had plenty of time and to spare, and actually remained in harbour
three whole days after the information had reached him. Then, on the
morning of the fourth day, we weighed and stood out to sea, beating off
the land against the sea-breeze until we ran into the calm belt between
the sea-breeze and the trade-wind. Here we remained motionless for more
than an hour until the trade-wind gradually ate its way inshore and
reached us, when we ran right out to sea until we had sunk the land
astern of us. Then we hauled up to the southward on a taut bowline,
and, under easy canvas, made our leisurely way toward the mouth of the
Fernan Vaz river, off which we arrived five days later, making the land
from the masthead about an hour before sunset.

All that night, the whole of the next day, and all the night following
we remained hove-to under topsails, jib, and spanker, dodging to and fro
athwart the mouth of the river, with a man on the main-royal yard,
during the hours of daylight, to give us timely notice of the appearance
of the craft which was to play the part of decoy; while with the
approach of nightfall we made sail and beat in to within a distance of
some three miles of the coast, running off into the offing again an hour
before daylight. At length, when we had hung upon the tenterhooks of
suspense for close upon forty hours, and were beginning to fear that the
captain, in h